France under fire

[kandrathe]

*I couldn't find an article about his yet in an English language website, hopefully it can be posted later.

Here are a couple sites...

AllAfrica Times - Rwanda: 1994 Tutsi Genocide - Try French Suspects
BBC News -- Rwanda: How the genocide happened

First, in the game of geo-politics, you are sometimes required to pick sides. When you aid a brutal dictator or hunta, whether we are talking about Iraq, El Salvador, Kenya, or Rwanda, you risk getting the blood of innocents on your hands. The US, Britain, Russia, China, France and many other nations have all aided terrible people in the third world to do terrible things. Mix in corporate greed, and my god, we (i.e. G8 -- powerful nations) are all exploitative and brutal. The reality of power, greed, corruption, and injustice expressed in deaths in Africa is unforgivable, from oil, chromium, cobalt, manganese, pharmaceutical testing, and blood diamonds. (USGS - Strategic African Minerals). Check out a map of strategic African mineral deposits, and you will find those places that are worth fighting over.

See also; GlobalSecurity.org -- U.S. RELIANCE ON AFRICA FOR STRATEGIC MINERALS. If the US needs them, then the EU, Russia, and China are also vying for control and access.

Back to France, and its strategic interests in Africa. This paper by Nicholas Pederson of ACDIS is very expository -- Changes in French Policy Towards Africa To summarize that paper; France has historically kept more control over its former colonial properties, and namely Niger and Gabon as a source of uranium. As the cold war ended, and other sources of uranium became available, France was able to let go of Africa. It is likely that what happened in Africa is that as France started pulling out its control, similar to the release by the USSR of control in the Balkans, it resulted in the resumption of a centuries old conflicts that were frozen in time. Pederson states, "Ultimately, it was an attempt by France to provide a clear distinction between the Francophone areas of Africa and the Anglophone areas. In attempting drawing that line, France armed the Hutu forces that did the majority of the killing. While France would not have sold the arms to the Hutus if the French knew the eventual usage of the weapons, it does not change the fact that the French supplied the Hutu’s. Also, the French Central bank was busy devaluing the CFA franc. In January of 1994, the value of the CFA franc was decreased by over fifty percent. This was done to allow monetary unification within the EU. However, the side effect was economic chaos in French Africa, and destabilizing Habyarimana's government.

But, guns and money (like matches and gasoline) are only the tip of the iceberg. I believe it is more as Human Rights Watch states, "This genocide resulted from the deliberate choice of a modern elite to foster hatred and fear to keep itself in power. This small, privileged group first set the majority against the minority to counter a growing political opposition within Rwanda. Then, faced with RPF success on the battlefield and at the negotiating table, these few power holders transformed the strategy of ethnic division into genocide. They believed that the extermination campaign would restore the solidarity of the Hutu under their leadership and help them win the war, or at least improve their chances of negotiating a favorable peace. They seized control of the state and used its machinery and its authority to carry out the slaughter." — Leave None to Tell the Story; Genocide in Rwanda, Human Rights Watch, March 1999